McIntyres Meadow

After planting the climbing Beans in our adjacent allotment we chilled a little with a walk around McIntyres Field.
It would be more appropriate to call it a meadow these days since becoming a part of the nature reserve it had been allowed to naturalise with just one annual mowing. It has regular cutting of wide pathways around and through to give good access for walkers. The meadow is host to many flowering plants including Pyramidal orchids in summer.
Many insects take advantage of this especially Grasshoppers which turn the meadow into a discordant cacophony of stridulation on hot still days.
Today there was no noise from insects, and a fresh wind kept the heat of the sunshine to a comfortable level.
The meadow plants are gaining height but not yet full grown, another few weeks before that is reached.
Most notable to see is great drifts of flowering Cow Parsley which has colonised the Western edge of the meadow . Frequently fluttering over it were Large and Small White butterflies and a single Orange Tip, which attempted to chase off any other butterfly it encountered.